Defending Age Distinctions in Employee Benefits after the Elimination of Mandatory Retirement

Abstract

Approaching the issue through their review of several recent court and tribunal decisions, the authors argue that the legislative policy choice in Ontario and other jurisdictions to permit age-based distinctions in the provision of benefits to employees over age 65, notwithstanding the abolition of mandatory retirement, was not only reasonable but necessary. That choice, in their view, represents a fair, and amply justified, balance between the right of individual employees to continue working past 65, and the right of employees as a collec- tivity to freely negotiate benefit provisions and group insurance plans that are in the interests of the group as a whole.